California Rain to Return With 1 of Year’s Strongest Storms on the Way

After some days of sunshine, the rains could return Tuesday night. The week’s first storm will likely drop showers across the Bay Area before a second, much stronger atmospheric river hits late Wednesday through Friday.

The atmospheric river is forecast to peak on Thursday, bringing high wind speeds and at least a couple of inches of rain to most areas. While heavy storms this winter have been concentrated in the North Bay, this one will also stretch farther south and reach most of the state.

“This is going to be probably one of the strongest events that we’ve seen outside of the North Bay so far this year,” said Dalton Behringer, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service. “Heavy rain and gusty wind is the main story here.”

The first, lighter storm this week will dampen soils — which are already saturated in many regions — and increase the flooding potential of the incoming atmospheric river.

The National Weather Service in San Francisco expects some shallow landslides as well as flooding in urban areas and small streams across the region. There’s also a chance that the rains could cause flash flooding and overtop the banks of large rivers. Wind gusts from the southwest could reach 30 mph on Thursday and up to double that in the mountains, threatening tree damage and power outages.

The Santa Cruz and Santa Lucia mountains could see as much as 8 inches of rain before the end of the week. The Tahoe area has a projected 12 to 15 inches of snow, with even more expected on the highest peaks.

Southern Californians are also bracing for the greatest impacts of this same storm on Thursday. There, the projected rainfall threatens to cause landslides around areas with fresh wildfire burn scars.

Behringer warns residents not to be fooled by any break between storm systems this week.

“A lot of people are going to see the rain stop on Wednesday,” Behringer said. “But just keep in mind, the [storm] on Thursday is coming on [its] heels.”

The National Weather Service forecaster who wrote this week’s report for San Francisco added a personal note. The forecaster, a local high school track coach on the side, plans for the team to run through most of the rain but to certainly cancel practice on Thursday.

Saturday looks dry, but the rain could return as soon as Sunday.